A PCI DSS Compliance Overview: What You Should Know

How CimTrak Helps With PCI Compliance

While CimTrak can help you achieve compliance with a number of PCI DSS security standard requirements, two sections, PCI 10.5.5 and PCI 11.5, specifically call for a file integrity monitoring solution such as CimTrak to be deployed.

PCI DSS Requirement 10.5.5 | File Integrity Monitoring

Use file-integrity-monitoring or change-detection software on logs to ensure that existing log data cannot be changed without generating alerts (although new data being added should not cause an alert).

PCI DSS Requirement 11.5 | Change Detection Mechanisms

Deploy a change-detection mechanism (for example, file-integrity monitoring tools) to alert personnel to unauthorized modification of critical system files, configuration files, or content files; and configure the software to perform critical file comparisons at least weekly.

Learn more about FIM for PCI DSS 11.5

Staying PCI DSS Compliant

There are a large variety of products available that promise to assist with your PCI compliance efforts—the sheer volume of products can be overwhelming. Given the complexity of PCI DSS, no one product can ensure compliance. However, many products claim to keep you PCI compliant—can they?

Given that breaches have occurred at firms that at one point in time had been certified as PCI compliant, the answer is certainly no. So how do you ensure the security of your PCI environment given this reality?

Compliance with PCI DSS should be viewed as a temporary condition, a “snapshot” of your systems at a given moment. PCI Compliance is subject to change at any moment. Much to their chagrin, many organizations have learned this lesson the hard way.

PCI solutions often fall short because while they can show that the environment is compliant at one point in time, they have no ability to assure that the compliance in continual. Once you have employed various tools to get your PCI environment into a known good state, the key is to do everything possible to detect and prevent changes that will alter that state.

CimTrak’s PCI Configuration Monitor

Learn how to automatically check a large number of critical configurations on your Windows systems for PCI compliance with CimTrak’s PCI Configuration Monitor.

CimTrak Exceeds PCI DSS Standards

The goal of PCI 10.5.5 and PCI 11.5 is to ensure the integrity of critical logs from the PCI environment and to ensure that changes to files do not allow a breach of PCI data. While PCI 11.5 calls for file-integrity monitoring software such as CimTrak to look for file changes at least weekly, true integrity of your PCI environment requires much more frequent monitoring. CimTrak provides real-time file integrity monitoring (FIM) without taxing your system resources.

This allows you to exceed the minimum frequency for file-integrity monitoring called for in PCI 11.5 and gives you added peace of mind that your PCI environment is secure and in a state of constant integrity. PCI 11.5 also discusses the importance of regularly monitoring the output of your file integrity monitoring (FIM) solution. CimTrak makes it easy by providing complete reporting on changes, as well as critical configurations.

CimTrak covers a broad array of systems in PCI environments, including servers, network devices, critical workstations, and even point of sale (POS) systems. Whether you’re a small retailer or a large payment processor, CimTrak can help you!

Next Steps Toward PCI Compliance

If you’ve downloaded the PCI DSS Compliance Checklist, you will be able to see how File Integrity Monitoring can fit into your compliance strategy. We recommend getting a Demo of CimTrak so you can see exactly how it accomplishes critical elements of the PCI DSS Compliance Standards.

PCI DSS: Is Your System Secure and Compliant Download

FIM For PCI DSS in 3 Easy Steps Download